November in Zone 7b/8a

Roses, people... we still have roses.  Blooming, Blossoming, Beautiful roses.  In November.  (Can you tell I'm not used to this?  Snowflakes and frost, yes.  Roses, no.)

 The carrots (which I planted late, I think!) are up and I've already thinned them out.

I've harvested most of the broccoli and am now waiting for the side shoots to get big enough to pick.

Mr. Bumblebee is still loving the basil and lavender.  I love knowing he's there to pollinate my treasures.

The Black Swallowtail Cats have found the parsley.  We counted about a dozen, but I think we're down to a handful at this point.  (Look carefully in the center.  You'll see one with it's white stripe.)

The cabbages are just starting to head up, and I had to harvest the first tiny one today.  It was getting decimated by cabbage worms.  Fortunately, the few others I have seem to be faring better.  As with the broccoli, I don't think I planted enough cabbages.  I didn't want an influx, but I might have forgotten they can be left unharvested for awhile.  Or I might have been permanently scarred by Mom's stinky sauerkraut fermenting in the basement...  (love you, Mom!) 

I'm not sure what to expect from the herbs, so I'm dehydrating as many as I can in case they don't last the winter.


I just planted garlic and shallots, which may be a little late but who knows.  I didn't special order any heirloom varieties (most were sold out by the time I got around to looking).  I just bought some at the store and plunked the individual cloves in the ground.  Yes, you can do that.  Which reminds me, the leeks I bought and planted are doing wonderfully.  Need to figure out when/how to harvest them.

And since it's November, best of all the new seed cattys will be here next month and I can start dreaming about my first real garden, with plants that *I* chose and raised.  Until then, I need to go freeze some more bell peppers...